Russia’s Largest Lender Sberbank Gets License to Issue, Exchange Digital Assets

Sberbank claims to make transactions of digital financial assets in accordance with Russian laws.

By Radhika Parashar | Updated: 18 March 2022 14:09 IST

Russia’s Largest Lender Sberbank Gets License to Issue, Exchange Digital Assets

Photo Credit: Pixabay/ Sergey Gorbachev

Sberbank was founded in 1841 and is headquartered in Russia’s capital, Moscow

Highlights

Russia’s Sberbank is starting its work with digital assets
Russian entities will be able to acquire DFAs issued through the Sber
Currently, Russian Ruble is trading historically low

Russia's Sbernank has secured all official paperwork that now allows it to issue and exchange digital finance assets (DFAs) in the country. This essentially means that Russian crypto and NFT holders can exchange their assets for fiat currency and vice versa through Sberbank. The development comes at a time Russia is at war with neighbour, Ukraine. Due to its decision to execute the military invasion, Russia is facing several sanctions from Western and European nations making its economy unstable. The country seems to be tuning up ways to generate crypto income.

Sberbank claims to make DFA transactions in accordance with Russian laws, now that it has all the relevant licences from the Bank of Russia.

“DFAs issued on Sber's digital assets platform will be recorded and circulated via an information system based on distributed ledger technology, which ensures data security and makes data immutable,” said the bank in a statement.

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Russian entities will be able to acquire DFAs issued through the Sber information system, that will get them to invest their petty funds to fetch incomes.

“Companies will be able to make their first transaction on our blockchain platform one month from now. We are just starting our work with digital assets, realising that further development requires adaptation of the current regulatory framework. To do that, we are ready to work closely with the regulator and executive bodies,” Sergey Popov, director of the Transaction Business Division, Sberbank said in a statement.

It is noteworthy that just weeks ago, Russia was considering the ban of the crypto sector citing its volatile and untraceable nature as major issues.

Russia Continues to Trade in Cryptocurrency Even as Sanctions Tighten

Towards its war with Ukraine, however, Russia began testing its digital currency in the making, called the ‘Digital Ruble'. In the backdrop of economic penalties, the Ruble is currently undergoing one of its historically low phases.

The Ruble has fallen by around 25 percent. Currently, RUB 1 is equivalent to $0.0097 (roughly Rs. 0.72).

This is a record low for Ruble, which is one of the world's oldest currencies. People are reportedly exchanging Rubles for ‘store-of-value' crypto assets such as Bitcoin

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Further reading: Crypto, Russia Ukraine War, Cryptocurrency

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More